


Portrait Mode (Part Two)

by skymageariel



Series: 31 days of The Dragon Prince [28]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Modern AU, school au, slowburn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:08:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27740530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skymageariel/pseuds/skymageariel
Summary: Rayla’s first day in her new school ends with unknown phone numbers and burnt cake
Relationships: Amaya/Janai (The Dragon Prince), Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince)
Series: 31 days of The Dragon Prince [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946767
Comments: 8
Kudos: 41





	Portrait Mode (Part Two)

Being the new kid was one thing, but being the new kid in another country was even worse. People kept asking questions. The same questions, over and over.  _ Why’d you transfer here? How long are you staying? What are you studying? What’s your favorite part about the states so far?  _ Blah, blah, blah, everything was starting to sound the same. And Rayla’s answers only got more and more bland the more she had to answer those questions. And once people realized Rayla was just as normal as anyone else, they lost interest. She was beginning to think everyone at this school was a rude nobody.

Until she showed up to psychology. 

Rayla arrived at the psychology classroom rather early. It was her third to last class of the day, and at this point, she was practically exhausted. The day had taken a toll on her, and at this point, all she wanted was to take the furthest seat from the front of the room, put her head down and go to sleep. Psych was a blow off class anyways.

So she sat in the back corner, away from everything. Finally some peace and quiet. But just as Rayla put her head down, she heard someone sit in the seat next to her. _ Please don’t try to talk to me, please don’t try to talk to me, _ she pleaded silently. But as her luck would have it, the person started talking. 

“Hi! Are you the new girl from Scotland?”

Rayla pulled her head up, trying her best to not let her annoyance show. “Yeah,” she said, bored.

“That’s really cool,” the girl smiled. It was a genuine smile, too. Nothing like the artificial ones she’d received all day. “My name’s Claudia. What’s yours?” She stuck out her hand for a handshake.

“I’m Rayla,” she replied, shaking Claudia’s hand. This Claudia girl was cool. With jet-black hair and a leather jacket over a dress, Claudia seemed like the only girl in this school who’s personality didn’t revolve around either cheerleading or studying. 

“That’s a cool name. And a cool accent. What brings you to psychology class?” Claudia asked, bringing out her notebook and letting it fall to the desk with a  _ bap!  _

“I needed to fill my schedule,” Rayla explained. “My parents said if I was gonna go to school in a different country, I was gonna learn something.”

“Ew, that’s so lame,” Claudia scoffed, flipping to the next clean page. Rayla caught a glimpse of her notes- messy and barely legible. She liked this girl. 

“I know,” Rayla agreed. “I’m not gonna have time to do anything fun while I’m here.”

“Are you taking any classes you're at least excited for?”

“AP biology, I guess,” Rayla shrugged as she pulled her own blank notebook out of her backpack. “I think science is cool, but I’m mostly taking it for the credit.”

“Hey, I have a friend in that class! You should look for him when you get there.” As Claudia spoke, the bell rang overhead. The teacher stood at the front of the room, and the class immediately snapped to attention. 

“Hello, class,” said the teacher.

“Hi, Mrs. Jane,” the class chorused, some enthusiastic, some bored. Either way, Rayla could tell that this Mrs. Jane character ran a tight ship. Maybe psych wouldn’t be the blow-off class Rayla expected it to be. 

“Mrs. Jane’s really cool,” Claudia whispered as if she’d read Rayla’s mind. “I think you’ll like her a lot.”

“I hope so.”

“She’s super strict on the outside, but if you give her enough compliments, she won’t take off points for late work,” she whispered with a slight laugh. “We’re kind of best friends, me and Mrs. Jane.”

“Do our ladies in the back have anything they’d like to share with the class?” Mrs. Jane’s voice cut through the air and the whole class turned their heads to stare. Rayla sank back into her seat, doing her best to hide from the looks of the class, but Clauda sat up, smiling.

“Apologies, Mrs. J. I was just exchanging some psych resources with my new friend. By the way, have I told you that your cardigan is really pretty? It’s a good color on you.” Claudia smiled sweetly, and Mrs. Jane beamed, wrapping the coral cardigan she was wearing tighter around her. 

“Why, thank you,” she said. “Everyone, please turn to page thirty-seven in your textbooks…” She continued to teach, and Rayla looked at Claudia in slight amazement. 

“How did you do that?” she whispered.

“I’m a kiss-ass, what can I say?” Claudia shrugged with a mischievous smile, scribbling something in her notebook. She tore the corner of the page and slid it to Rayla. “It’s my phone number. Maybe we can be study buddies!”

“I’d like that,” Rayla smiled, putting the number in her phone immediately. “So, your friend in biology-“

“Are you on page thirty-seven?” Claudia asked, as a textbook appeared on her desk.

“Oh, right,” Rayla scoffed at herself, pulling her textbook out of her bag. Maybe psychology with a friend would be a bit more interesting than just blowing off the class all year.

After the class ended, Claudia pointed Rayla to where her next class would be; Biology. They parted ways, promising to text later that day about their lesson in class (as well as the quiz Mrs. Jane had scheduled for later that week). So Rayla walked down the hall with a newfound confidence. She had made a friend! That was something. That was an accomplishment. 

That euphoria dissipated as soon as she walked into biology. The room was half full already when she walked in, and she attracted stares. She was the stranger again. As she walked to the back of the room, Rayla locked eyes with some random kid in the front row. His bright green eyes pieced hers before he slouched and turned away, scribbling in some book. Rayla didn’t think much of the interaction, taking her place in the back of the room as she had in all of her other classes. 

—

Rayla’s host family was quite a distance from the school. An hour long bus ride with maybe four other kids. She settled in a seat towards the back, pressing herself up to the window as the bus started moving. Thankfully, no one else sat near her. So she put in some headphones, blasting her favorite songs at full volume to drown out the hum of the bus. 

The scenery as they drove had quite a range. Some streets were heavily populated, with restaurants and grocery stores and shopping strips and gas stations and convenience stores- literally any building imaginable lining the street. Other places were just trees. Huge pine trees that towered over the bus, dusted with a layer of snow. They towered like giants, but they felt gentle. Rayla had heard that Washington state was beautiful, but she didn’t believe it until now. 

Of course, however, Rayla’s blissful bus ride was interrupted with a  _ ding! _ that came from her phone. It rang loud in her ears, making her jump. With tired eyes, she read the screen. 

A text from an unknown number? That was weird. 

_ Unknown Sender (3:39 pm):  _ hi! this is callum- im in your bio class with mr. king?

_ Unknown Sender (3:40 pm):  _ i know it’s probably weird to get a text like this, but i’m doing an art project where i need to paint a portrait of someone. my friend claudia referred me to you, since you’re new and might be looking to meet new people

_ Unknown Sender (3:42 pm):  _ if this is too weird, i get it- but if youre interested in sitting for a portrait, text me back! i’d love to work with you

The texts came one after the other, making her phone buzz each time. Rayla read the messages with confusion. Someone wanted to… paint her? At the thought, her brow furrowed. That was random. Rayla wanted to ignore the message. She had too much to worry about, when would she have time to deal with a portrait? Plus if he was in her class, why would he go out of his way to get her number? Why not just ask her in class that day? Why put on a show? Besides, it’s not like Rayla thought of herself as outstanding looking. Why should anyone waste their time painting her?

But then Rayla thought about the day she’d had. It was boring. It was hard and it was tiring, and she’d done it alone. And outside of Claudia, Rayla didn’t like anyone at that place. But if this kid was friends with Claudia, maybe he wasn’t half bad. 

_ Rayla (3:45 pm):  _ hi

_ Rayla (3:45 pm):  _ this is a really weird text to get

_ Rayla (3:46 pm):  _ i guess i wouldn’t mind sitting for a portrait

_ Unknown Sender (3:46 pm):  _ oh, cool! 

_ Unknown Sender (3:46 pm):  _ we can talk a bit more about it in class tomorrow if you want

_ Rayla (3:47 pm):  _ yeah, that sounds good

_ Rayla (3:47 pm):  _ see you then

_ Unknown Sender (3:47 pm):  _ see you then! 

Rayla stared at her phone, a little confused as to what just happened. She agreed to let someone… paint her? Was every school in America like this?

—

The bus stop was right in front of her host family’s house. Well, a family of two. For the duration of her time in the states, Rayla was staying with two women; Amaya and Janai. They’d been married for a while, apparently, and agreed to let Rayla stay with them for a bit so they could get the hang of taking care of a kid before they had one of their own. 

Rayla walked up the steps to their house, opening the door to complete chaos. The living room was right next to the kitchen, nothing but half a wall in between. From the front door, Rayla could see smoke emitting from the kitchen, and the stench of burnt sugar filled the entire house. Skeptical, she closed the door behind her, sliding off her shoes and walking cautiously towards the kitchen, where she found Amaya crouched in front of the oven, doing her best to wave away the clouds of smoke rising from it. With a pair of oven mitts, Amaya pulled a blackened mass in a cake pan out and turned around, placing it on the counter. She looked up to see Rayla, and jumped, startled.

“You scared me,” she signed, laughing. “I tried to bake you a cake to celebrate your first day of school, but I forgot about it, and…” Amaya gestured to what should have been a cake but was very burnt. Rayla laughed.

“It’s okay,” she signed back, “I appreciate the gesture.” Amaya beamed; she hadn’t expected Rayla to know ASL when she first moved in, but Rayla had learned the basics when she found out half her host family was deaf. Whenever they conversed, Amaya couldn’t help but feel joyful that someone had learned her language.

“How was school?” Amaya asked before pulling the trash can out from under the sink. 

“It was okay. I already made some new friends.”

“That’s awesome!” She dumped the contents of the cake pan into the trash. “Who are they?”

“Well, there’s Claudia,” Rayla sighed, setting her backpack on the floor. “We’re in the same psych class. We’re gonna be study partners.”

“Oh, I know Claudia,” Amaya replied. “She’s good friends with my nephew, Callum. I think he’s in your biology class.”

Something in Rayla’s head clicked. “Callum is your nephew?”

“Yes, we’re very close. He and his brother are visiting this weekend.”

“Cool.” Rayla paused. “He’s kind of weird.”

Amaya laughed. “Yeah, he doesn’t get social cues that well. But he’s a sweet kid. You’ll like him.”

“I hope so.” There was an awkward pause. “Where’s Janai?”

“On her way home from the firm,” Amaya explained. She picked up a rag and started wiping down the counter, pausing to say, “Don’t worry- I’ll ask her to get us dinner.”

Rayla smiled. “Thanks. For everything.” 

“Our pleasure,” Amaya grinned back.

**Author's Note:**

> hi! thanks for reading <3 i hope everyone had a good holiday yesterday, and i hope you enojoyed this part! i can’t believe this series is almost over :( i do have big things planned for the future afterwards, but in the meantime, lets finish out these last few days strong !


End file.
